The following is a very quick summary. See the Breath of Heaven rune effects page for a more thorough description of rune effects, or any of the individual rune pages for numbers, screenshots, blue quotes, and much more.

Skill tiers were removed shortly before the beta started in September 2011, and Breath of Heaven became a level 2 skill. The skill system was once again overhauled for the Beta Patch 13 in February 2012, and Breath of Heaven was classified as a Defensive skill and moved to level 8. For Beta Patch 14, the amount of healing provided by this spell more than halved.